Generally, a variety of control operations of entertainment devices such as video game machines are performed by using control apparatuses. Therefore, a plurality of control buttons are provided on the control apparatuses and the user controls those buttons, thereby controlling the entertainment devices. As an example, the user can control a character which is displayed on a television receiver.
Conventionally, according to the thus-constructed control apparatuses, in many cases, directional control buttons cross-shaped or circular are disposed at the front-left thereof and a plurality of multi-purpose buttons are disposed at the front-right thereof.
The directional control buttons and the multi-purpose buttons comprise a tactile switch or rubber switch. Since the switch is turned on/off, the character is moved in a digital manner or the state of the character is changed in a digital manner.
As explained above, the conventional entertainment device has only a function for digitally changing the character which is displayed on the television receiver by using the directional control buttons or the multi-purpose buttons, and thereby has a disadvantage in that the motion of the character and changes thereof are not gradual and the appearance thereof is poor.
In order to overcome this disadvantage, according to a manipulation device for a game machine disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 7-88252, it is possible to control a character which is displayed on a display screen of a television receiver in an analog manner by adding an analog-type input device which comprises a track ball or joystick, etc. Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 11-90042 discloses another conventional art to which an analog type-input device is added.
However, the input device of the analog type which comprises the track ball or joystick, etc. is quite different from that of the above-described directional control buttons or multi-purpose buttons in view of the operability. Therefore, it is expected that it takes a long time for a user who is accustomed to using the directional control buttons or multi-purpose buttons to become practiced in the operation of the analog-type input device and that the amount of fun which the entertainment device inherently provides may be drastically reduced.